Package about soldiers competing during the IMCOM Best Warrior competition. Produced by Shayna Brouker. Includes soundbites from Command Sgt. Maj. Wayne LaClair - IMCOM Best Warrior Competition Team Lead, Keith Smith - Installation Management Command, and Sgts. Jacob Brewster and Dane Jordan - IMCOM Best Warrior competitors. Also available in high definition.
After an exhausting week of rucking, wrestling, shooting and soldiering, each of the nine best Soldiers and noncommissioned officers in the U.S. Army Installation Management Command received an award for participating in the command's first-ever Best Warrior competition. But only two became Soldier and NCO of the Year.
Sgt. Jeremy Brake, an automated logistics specialist for U.S. Army Garrison Daegu, representing the IMCOM Korea region, was named NCO of the Year. Spc. Jonathan Melendez, a military police officer for USAG Schinnen, Netherlands, representing IMCOM Europe, was named Soldier of the Year for the command.
Sgt. Jacob A. Brewster from USAG Stuttgart and Spc. Paige Plumlee from USAG West Point, N.Y., were runners up.
The event took place May 22-26 in the rolling hills of Camp Bullis near San Antonio, Texas.
Brake and Melendez will go on to represent IMCOM at the Army-wide Best Warrior Competition in October at Fort Lee, Va. At the Army level, they will face the same challenges they overcame in Texas, including a board appearance, weapons qualification, 12-mile road march, day and night land navigation, warrior tasks testing and combatives " though likely in cooler conditions. Fort Lee averages 72 degrees Fahrenheit in October, while the average temperature in San Antonio hovered around 95 degrees throughout the competition week.
All competitors were winners no less, said Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch, commanding general of IMCOM, addressing the Soldiers alongside IMCOM Command Sgt. Maj. Neil Ciotola.
"Don't leave this competition thinking you're not a winner," Lynch said. "You're all winners. Noncommissioned officers are the backbone of the Army. Officers might come up with the ideas, but you all are the ones who get it done."
All nine competitors received a small statue commemorating their experience at Camp Bullis, and the winners were given a shadow box containing a coin from each of the IMCOM garrison commanders as well as a $1,000 savings bonds from Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command.
Both Menendez and Brake credited their family, sponsors, garrisons, regions -- and fellow competitors -- for getting them this far.
"Winning this competition was very challenging because I had to distinguish myself from all these great warriors," Menendez said. "I would not have been able to achieve this without the support of my wife, Mary, my parents and the outstanding leadership I have had throughout my military career."
Brake echoed his sentiment with a nod toward the eight other Soldiers he battled alongside and against over the past five days.
"It's been a crazy week, everybody," Brake said. "To the rest of the competitors, you guys are outstanding. Each and every one of you could have been standing up here."
Ciotola, who led the competition, took time to commend the competitors, highlight the purpose of the five-day event and outline the mission of IMCOM " to support and sustain the Army's home.
The IMCOM Best Warriors continue a tradition going back to the very beginning of the U.S. Army, Ciotola said. "Six companies of expert riflemen formed the foundation of what we've become " the most feared and revered land fighting force in the history of humanity. And you represent that. That's who you are. I'm so proud of you," he said.
"You lift me up, you fill my heart, you have proven my words: That you have boundless potential. Don't ever be satisfied with what you are."
For more stories, video and photos of the 2011 IMCOM Best Warrior competition, visit http://www.facebook.com/IMCOMBestWarrior.
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